Most of us have had at least one person telling us to wash our faces since we were born. If you are anything like the rest of us, washing your face is not the most enjoyable activity and making time to do it every day feels like a hassle. Most of us spent our teenage years stressing out over breakouts and acne and, even so, as adults we still grumble about washing our faces, especially in the evening. Here’s the skinny: to keep your skin clear and your pores unclogged, you need to keep your face clean. Do you really want to be a grown person sporting a face full of acne? Here is how you keep your face clean and keep acne away.
Be gentle when you wash your face! Don’t scrub! Scrubbing can leave your face open for pore clogging agents. The skin on your face is incredibly sensitive and easily injured so scrubbing is far more harmful than helpful. Nobody wants to have scars from scrubbing. You need to have a firm but gentle touch when you wash your face. This sounds harder than it actually is. After you wash your face take a look at it–if it is bright red then you used too much pressure. The goal is to have a flush, but that flush should not be beet red. A little bit of a glow is healthy but resembling a stop sign is not.
If you suffer from extreme acne problems, you’ll want to find a cleanser that contains a high level of salicylic acid or benzoyl peroxide. A cleanser that contains these ingredients is stronger than its competition and was created specifically to combat severe acne problems. If you only suffer from a pimple or two here and there you should choose from something gentler–these harsh cleansers could strip valuable layers of skin off of your face. Getting your severe acne under control might really be as simple as choosing a harsher cleanser when you buy your next skin care products!
Natural acne remedies are another option if you suffer from breakouts. You might try squeezing some toothpaste on that pimple. Start by putting some toothpaste directly on to the zit after it has finished forming. When you wake up, you will see that the pimple or zit has gotten a lot smaller (do not try this if you have pets who roam free at night because tasting the toothpaste could make them very sick). You might also try using egg whites in your facial cleanser and as a zit reducer. You can either do spot treatment by putting some egg whites directly onto your pimples or you can use the egg whites to make a facial mask. The best way to treat an acne breakout is also the most basic way to treat an acne breakout: wash your face and don’t pick at your zits. There will be times when you want something a little stronger to combat a breakout. You should be happy to know that while acne does not discriminate against age, neither do acne fighting agents-you should be able to find something to cure your breakout no matter what your number is.